Foreign Minister Responds to MUI Call for Indonesia to Withdraw from BoP

Foreign Minister Sugiono responded to calls from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) for Indonesia to withdraw from the Board of Peace (BoP), also known as the Security Council. MUI urged the government to resign from the BoP following the escalation of the US-Israel conflict with Iran. According to Sugiono, all discussions about the BoP are on hold. The main reason is that the world’s focus, including Indonesia’s diplomacy, has shifted to developments in the security situation in Gulf states. ‘Yes, all BoP discussions are on hold, all attention shifted to the situation in Iran,’ Sugiono said at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday evening, 3 March 2026. He emphasised that Indonesia remains in contact with countries in the Gulf. The Gerindra Party politician said several Gulf states that are BoP members have been affected by the sequence of attacks in the US-Israel-Iran conflict. ‘If BoP remains the same, we will continue consultations with our Gulf colleagues, because they are also being attacked, and because they are BoP members.’ Indonesia’s membership in the BoP, conceived by US President Donald Trump, had previously sparked controversy, especially after the US and Israel launched a joint strike on Iran. MUI revealed that the United States, which is playing a central role in managing the Palestinian conflict through the BoP, faces big questions. MUI questions whether that strategy is aimed at a just peace or rather strengthens an inequitable security architecture and buries Palestinian independence. Therefore, MUI urges the Indonesian government to withdraw from the BoP as it is deemed ineffective in achieving true independence for Palestine, according to the Tausiyah issued on Sunday, 1 March 2026, quoted from a statement on MUI’s official website.